


Stranger Tides

by nevermindgrantaire



Category: Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Crossdressing, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Mistaken Identity, but not major, dramatic stuff idek
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 10:27:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6150598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nevermindgrantaire/pseuds/nevermindgrantaire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laura is a relatively poor priests daughter in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carmilla is a pirate, trying to make enough money for her crew to survive. When a case of mistaken wealth leads Laura to wind up a prisoner on the ship, the two are bought together in rather less comfortable surroundings than either would prefer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger Tides

The bucket of water hit her like a slap in the face, and Laura shook fitfully out of the head-injury induced sleep that she had slipped into.

She spluttered, trying to blink away the water from her eyes and stop herself from inhaling it; she was aware that she couldn’t move her hands, tied in front of her with some kind of rough rope that scratched away the skin of her wrists. The light in the small room was dim and flickering, candle light. Was it night time, or were there just no windows? She couldn’t see clearly, her vision swimming from the shock. It smelled like seawater, dirt and sweat and salt. She could have sworn she could hear the skittering of rats in the corner.

Blinking a few times to clear everything she tried to focus; there was a figure standing in front of her, silhouetted by the light pouring through the open door. “Oh, you’re awake,” said the figure.

“Hard not to be when you throw a bucket of water over me,” Laura said, and tried not to slur her words. Her head pounded. Maybe she was concussed. Her lips tasted salty. She frowned, tasting them. Blood? Or salt water? She could feel the floor beneath her gently undulating, like a ship caught on waves, and she hoped against hope that that was just the concussion speaking.

“No need to be rude,” the figure said and now that they were coming into focus she could just make out the figure of a boy, slim and tall with messily cut dark hair that stuck up in all directions wildly like it had been hacked short with a pair of gardeners shears. He wore a long coat and had a cutlass strapped across his side, and he was watching her carefully, with slightly wide eyes. Cautious. A bucket hung from his fingers.

“Where am I?” Laura tried.

“You don’t remember?” The boy asked, and his mouth shifted sideways in an odd smirk. He was… pretty. Oddly pretty. “Good. You’re in the middle of the Atlantic, sweetheart. On board the Silas.” He patted one of the beams fondly.

Great. Laura furrowed her brow as she tried to remember. Her corset had been laced too tight, far too tight for any kind of comfort but her father had wanted her looking presentable. She had been trying to make it through an afternoon of society, socialising with ladies who intimidated her with their beauty and their confidence, and their huge dresses, and she had slipped out to walk down to the beach alone. Alone. That was her mistake, she supposed. And her corset was frustrating her, far too tight for her liking and so she had been walking slow and she had been preoccupied and so she had not noticed the people behind her. At least not until something very hard and heavy had made contact with her head and sent her spinning and... “You kidnapped me!”

The boy pouted, tutting. “Shush, shush, shush. Kidnapping is such an ugly word. Let’s say we… liberated you. In a way. We liberated you into captivity.” He smirked again. “Yes. I like that. Much… nicer.”

“You’re a pirate.” Laura tipped her head back to lean against the pillar that dug into her back. Her voice lacked the venom that she intended to put behind her words. “I suppose you want money?”

“You catch on fast.”

“I have nothing. My family have nothing.”

“That’s not true.” The boy shook his head. “I don’t appreciate being lied to.”

“My name’s Laura Hollis- I’m a pastor’s daughter. I am hardly in the business of lying, and even less so in the business of having money.”

He huffed. “What of your clothes, then? Your corset alone is worth a considerable sum.”

“Borrowed for the party,” Laura said absently. She became suddenly aware of how easily she could breathe, the tight pressure on her ribcage gone. The corset was no more. She appeared to have been redressed though, in a kind of white shift, like a night dress. _Like a virgin sacrifice_ , the part of her brain that read novels and went on wild flights of fantasy added. “You undressed me? How dare you!”

The boy laughed.

“Taking liberties like that.” She paused. “I suppose I shouldn’t expect more from a pirate. Your shirt is so thick with dirt it could stand up on its own.” That wasn’t true. It was, however, enough to draw a little hiss of annoyance from the boy. “You do realise that I shall be ruined if I ever return home? Alone in the company of a man for so long!”

He appraised her for a moment, raising one slim eyebrow. A smirk was splashed across his face. “We didn’t mean to knock you out so forcefully. Didn’t want you to forget how to breathe or die altogether. Those contraptions are devilish.”

“Oh,” Laura considered this for a moment, her ruffled feathers soothed a little. She wondered how he knew about the evils of corsetry. Probably had a girl back at port. Or several girls at each port they visited, she thought. That’s what pirates were like, she had been told. And this one was very pretty. He would likely be successful. She shuddered and quickly gathered her thoughts. Obviously not successful with her. She cleared her throat. “Thank you. I suppose. But I don’t appreciate a man undressing me like that. You ought to be ashamed.”

“A man, eh?” The boy asked. He sounded oddly amused, but Laura couldn’t see why.

“Or a boy, rather. And I suppose you feel rather foolish now you know you’ve made a mistake. I have no money. The corset was rented as was the jewellery. This entire thing was rather pointless.” She looked at him pointedly. “So there.”

The boy sighed, narrowing his eyes. He was very… girlish, Laura couldn’t help but notice. His eyes were dark, framed with thick dark eyelashes and his cheekbones were high and pale. He looked almost fragile. “Well, that is a terrible shame considering we are already well across the sea by now.”

“You could always untie me. I won’t cause trouble.”

He smirked again. Laura was really starting to find that smirk frustrating, although she wasn’t sure why. “An interesting proposition, Miss Hollis. Unfortunately, I do not believe you. In any capacity.”

“Shame,” Laura said. “You could at least loosen my wrists?”

Holding back a laugh, the boy shook his head. “I’d lose my head.” He turned to go, and his face caught the light that leaked through the door to her cell. Pretty cheekbones, again, and she noticed now the smooth lines of his neck and the pretty curl of his hair and… oh god.

Laura gasped. “You-”

The pirate laughed at her as she turned to leave. “It took you a while to work it out,” she laughed. Now that Laura realised, she didn’t know how she could possibly have missed it. The pirate girl’s frame was slim, it was true, but there were curves there now that she could see. And the girl’s pretty face too, was now in her eyes unabashedly feminine. She was starkly beautiful, a little wild around the eyes and with a smudge of tar on her pale cheek.

“I didn’t realise pirates could be-”

“You have got a lot to learn, cupcake,” the pirate said with a grin.

Laura’s eyes met hers as the door shut between them and left her in darkness. Damnit.

Laura took a breath, then another.

She was _very_ pretty.

 

*****

 

The next day, the girl came to bring her a plate of food. The opening door bought in a flare of light that made her eyes hurt.

“Potato and carrot stew,” the girl said, pointing at the ambiguous grey-brown slop on the plate. “I managed to filch you a hunk of bread. I have to say, the crew are pretty damn- sorry, darn- unhappy about you not having any money. They are, however, slightly mollified by the fact that your lack of status means that there won’t be too much of an outcry about your disappearance. And, honestly, the fact that they might be able to…” She stopped as if realising that her tongue was running away with her.

“Might be able to what?” Laura asked through a mouthful of food. The shock had not harmed her appetite, but had instead accelerated it.

“I don’t think I ought to tell you,” the girl said.

“What’s your name?”

“Carmilla.”

Laura gave her an awkward nod, mouth full of bread. “Nice to meet you,” she said, as years of indoctrinated manners and social etiquette clashed within her with her natural sense of self preservation. “What don’t you want to tell me?”

“They think you might be able to sell you. Human cargo. All that sh… All that rubbish.”

“You can swear in front of me. I’m a parson’s daughter, not a nun.”

“You’re a lady,” Carmilla said. “It’s not polite.”

Laura laughed outright. “You kidnapped me. That’s hardly polite.”

“Touché.”

Laura quietened, pressing her wrists together to try and ease the rope burn. She tried, and failed, to reconcile the idea of her future before all this had happened, of a lonely governess slowly growing pinched and bitter, with the unknown and horrifying nothingness that could very soon become her future if she misstepped.

“It’s part of a pact that we made when we joined the crew,” Carmilla continued. “We won’t touch anything like that. It’s just… a small minority of the crew considering going back on their promises. We haven’t met port properly in a long time and I suppose they are cracking up a little.”

Laura blinked at her and bit her lip. “Alright,” she said.

“Oh, lord,” said Carmilla, and dipped to her black-breeched knees on the filthy floor in front of her. “You look like a kicked puppy. Come here, I’ll loosen your wrists.”

She stroked the pad of her thumb across the inside of Laura’s wrist, tracing the red rope-burn marks that ran over the soft blue-green of her veins. Then she raised it, guiding it gently to her lips and blew on it. Her breath cooled the wound for an instant, relief for the first time in hours. Laura sighed happily. Carmilla smiled, a proper smile rather than a smirk, and lowered her hand to untie the knots that secured them. She was uncomfortably close, but at the same time Laura felt that she was far too comfortable. She smelled oddly good for a pirate, she caught herself thinking. Laura closed her eyes; she could feel the roughness of Carmilla’s sea-shaped hands trying to be gentle with her tender skin, smell the scent that was inherently Carmilla beneath the thick veneer of dirt and seawater and salt. “Don’t worry,” Carmilla said, like she couldn’t quite believe that she was saying it and yet she believed every word she was saying. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anyone hurt you. I’ll keep you safe.”

When she opened her eyes, Carmilla’s face was suddenly very close to hers and she went cross-eyed trying to focus on her in the half-light. “What are you doing?”

Carmilla’s thumb traced the length of her vein, up and down and up and down, the repetitiveness soothing her. Laura sighed at the softness. Carmilla tilted her head slightly, watching her for a reaction, watching Laura as she swayed closer and closer, and then suddenly darted forward to catch her lips in a kiss. Her lips were chapped and dry, her mouth warm and hungry and terrifyingly enticing to Laura, whose eyes flew open wildly and who couldn’t help but squeak out in indignation after a few seconds of enjoyment. When Carmilla pulled away, she pulled away smirking.

Laura wiped her mouth disgustedly with one of her recently loosened wrists. “You may dress like a boy but there’s no need to act like one.”

“I’m a pirate. I think I’m supposed to steal at least one kiss.” She raised a perfect eyebrow. “It rather comes with the territory.”

Laura huffed angrily and turned her back as far as she could.

“You enjoyed it.”

Laura didn’t answer, huffing again.

After a moment, Carmilla’s warm form shifted away. After another moment, the light from the door flickered and disappeared, and Laura was left alone. She turned back towards the door, feeling the touch of the other girl’s lips still on hers.

_I did._

Oh god. Instantly she tried to crush the thought but it was there and tangible and loud and made her so so so scared.

_I did._

***********

 

The next few visits that Carmilla made, there was no bread, and Laura kept herself turned away from her, refusing to respond to her when she asked her questions or made comments on anything. She didn’t mention the kiss. The cell was bitterly cold now that they were truly setting out into deeper waters, the air perpetually damp and chilled and the constant shadow not letting her warm from the heat of the sun. Laura almost missed her corset; at least it would provide a little extra layer of warmth.

On the third day, Carmilla bought her a slice of orange, one single slice, and a lump of the too-hard bread that they couldn’t seem to escape from on board the Silas. It was a kind of peace offering, and Laura finally accepted it with a slight smile. The single slice of orange was one of the best things she had ever eaten.

“Right,” Carmilla said with a smile. She was watching her eat, fixated with relief after she had finally been graced with a small smile. “Come here, then.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t be so suspicious, for… for heaven’s sake. The Captain wants to see you.”

“The Captain?”

“You’d better call her that. Don’t be impolite or believe me, you won’t have a head for much longer. Mother is rather… irritable.”

“Mother? Is this entire ship filled with women? I thought it was bad luck.”

Carmilla snorted at her. “Piracy is one of few professions where women can be free to behave as they please and work to the same pay as the men. Although, we are not just women. There are men on board. And… Others, too.”

Laura nodded, and stood up, her knees almost giving out beneath her. She felt weak. Carmilla’s hands were cold as they looped around her arms to support her, a wiry strong arm winding round her waist to help her support her weight. Laura hadn’t moved for days and it had taken a toll on her muscles, evidently.

“What does the captain want?”

“I don’t know,” Carmilla admitted. “Probably to put you to work somewhere useful on board. Pay off your debt through saving the others work, that kind of thing.”

“My debt?” Laura let out a sarcastic laugh. “You kidnapped me! I didn’t ask for this!”

“And this is the kind of attitude that you are going to have to stamp out if you want to survive for more than ten seconds in her presence.”

Laura gave her a look, and limped along beside her.

 

*****

 

Carmilla prowled back and forth in front of the captain’s cabin, trying and failing to look like she wasn’t eavesdropping on the conversation going on within. The sea was peaceful, lapping at the sides of the boat with somewhat less of a mind numbing crash that it usually created. Ahead of her, people scuttled across the decks like crabs across a beach. She could see Will at the wheel, disinterestedly guiding the ship with little effort. She found that annoying, that he could do things so easily.

“Carm!” A voice from behind her made her spin and she turned to see Lafontaine, ginger as a clown fish and grinning as they raised their eyebrows a little suggestively. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing,” Carmilla said too quickly.

“Oh. It’s that girl, isn’t it? The one that Kirsch…”

“Yes,” Carmilla sighed. “The one that Kirsch kidnapped. Because he’s an idiot.”

“She speaking with the captain now?”

“Yes,” Carmilla said, trying again to hear what was being said inside, but she could hear nothing.

Lafontaine grinned. “And you’re waiting for her?”

“Why shouldn’t I?”

“No reason!” Lafontaine said quicky. “It’s just you’ve been a little lonely, perhaps, I thought. Ever since-” they cut themselves off abruptly.

“Since Elle?”

“No, I mean… Maybe. No.”

Carmilla shot them a look. It was not a nice look.

“Alright…” Lafontaine said, and took a step back. “I’ll see you later.”

 

*****

 

Laura backed out of the Captain’s cabin with her eyes on the ground, frantically saying “Thank you, Miss Captain, sir. I mean. Ma’am. I mean.” Then she tripped over.

“What happened?” Carmilla launched herself at her the instant the door closed.

“Your mother says she’s not going to throw me overboard, so that’s something.”

“That’s great!” Carmilla said, and then she tried to modulate her excitement. “I mean. Good. Well done.”

“She wants me to work with the doctor,” Laura said. “I studied some of the requirements, I suppose, back at home. Said I could be their assistant.”

Carmilla rolled her eyes. “Oh great.”

“What? What’s wrong with the doctor?”

“Nothing, nothing. They’re just painfully annoying. They’re the most tolerable of the ginger hell trio though.”

“The what?”

“Perry. Ship’s cook. Ginger. Danny. Ship’s best swordswoman, and the quartermaster. Also ginger. Lafontaine. Ship’s doctor. And-”

“Let me guess,” Laura smiled. “Ginger?”

“That would be correct.”

“I look forward to meeting them.”

 

******

 

Laura settled in surprisingly well to life as a not-captive on the ship. She seemed to have little will to escape and little desire to go home; she even took to wearing the same style of clothing as everyone else on board seemed to wear. The first time that Laura had attended mess with Lafontaine at her elbow cracking jokes, Carmilla had choked on her not-quite-good stew because god in heaven bless her, Laura in the knee-high skirts that most of the women wore on board was stunning. She looked a little uncomfortable, used to long skirts that she would have tripped over all the time on board. With her hair loose and an acceptable meal inside her, she looked stunning.

Carmilla tried not to look, instead shuffling to the end of the bench and staring down at her food grouchily, but Lafontaine caught sight of her.

“Hey, Laura, over here! Carmilla is trying to avoid us!”

Carmilla huffed. “I’m not trying to avoid you.”

“Except that you are.” Lafontaine flopped down beside her, throwing a dramatic arm around her shoulder. “Nice try.”

Laura slipped onto the corner of the bench opposite, more focused on her food than on Carmilla. “Is it good?” Carmilla asked, surprising herself with the question.

“Mm-hmm,” Laura managed, sparing a precious moment of eating time to give her a smile.

“Laura has been complaining about how hungry she is all day,” Lafontaine told Carmilla. “Except when I showed her the saw we use to amputate limbs. That killed her appetite for a little while.”

Laura snorted. “Nothing can kill my appetite. It just frightened me into silence for a while.”

A second person slid into the seat beside Laura, a looming presence, and Laura jumped. “Hello,” said the figure. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.” She had long red hair, pulled back with a strip of fabric, and a row of three earrings in her left ear. She wore trousers like Carmilla did, and a waistcoat, but while Carmilla wore long black boots, Danny was barefoot. She had a small knife stuck in her waistband.

Carmilla glowered. “Danny.”

“Carmilla.”

“Laura,” Lafontaine interrupted. “This is the quartermaster. Danny Lawrence. She stowed away to sea at 9, dressed herself as a boy and called herself Danny. Stuck with it so long she forgot her own name.”

Danny laughed. “That’s not true. Just because I won’t tell you my real name doesn’t mean that I don’t know what it is.” She turned to Laura, and paused for a moment, a little transfixed; her eyes flickered briefly over Laura’s lips, then to her eyes. “Hello,” she said again.

“Nice to meet you,” Laura said, and then, “Hello.”

“Hello,” Danny repeated, leaning her chin on her hand.

Carmilla cleared her throat. “This one is the worst of the trio,” she told Laura, who tore her eyes away from Danny’s and had to hide a smile with another mouthful of food.

“Laura is our kidnapped captive,” Lafontaine told Danny. “She’s the one that we… made a mistake with.”

“Ahh. I must apologise for my friends,” she said to Laura, who shook her head.

“Forgiven. I mean, not exactly forgiven but… Its alright.” She shrugged. “It is an interesting experience, to say the least.”

Carmilla huffed, and leaned back, crossing her arms. She watched Laura and Danny as they spoke, letting the conversation wash over her as she watched Laura; her hair so long and pretty, like spun gold and bronze. It looked like it would be soft, she thought absently. It looked lovely in the candlelight. _She_ looked lovely in the candlelight. Carmilla hadn’t seen her properly smiling like that before, warm and comfortable and a little sleepy.

She wanted to be the one making her smile like that.

She wanted so badly to make her smile.

The thought worried her, a lot.

 

*********

 

There was a tap on the door of the doctor’s tiny surgery room.

Laura sat up, uncomfortably half-trying to sleep. “Hello?” She asked.

“It’s me.”

“Carmilla?” Laura stood up, leaving the blanket she had been wrapped in on the slatted floor. “Are you alright?”

“I wanted to- I mean- that is, if you wanted to…” She took a breath. “There’s a view of the port. Its an amazing sight, I wondered if… If you wanted to come and watch us come in.”

Laura smiled. “Yes,” she said. “Alright.”

Up on deck it was almost deserted except for the night duty sailors milling about on the top deck. Carmilla guided Laura to the front of the ship with minimal noise and injury, stopping only to save her from tripping over a stray coil of rope. Ahead, the lights of the port lit up the night sky like a Christmas tree. Orange and pink, they flickered; some lights along the line of the beach glowed green, fires lit with salt-soaked driftwood that reacted and turned the flames green. In the dim light that reached them from the port, Carmilla watched Laura’s face as she stared out with round eyes.

“It’s so pretty,” she said.

Carmilla nodded, watching the colours play across her skin. Eventually she spoke. “What were you doing, before… all of this?”

“I was supposed to be visiting some richer acquaintances of my father. Some kind of wealthy family who live near his parish. Holy duty and all that.” She sighed. “Then I would have returned home again to my ordinary life. No marriage prospects although to me that was honestly a blessing. But I have no brothers, no uncles so when my father dies I would have had nothing to inherit. I would have ended up a governess.” She shrugged. “I probably won’t do that now.”

“No,” Carmilla agreed. Then, “What did you want to do?”

“I wanted to write,” Laura said. “I wanted to be a writer.”

“Are you any good?”

She laughed at the bluntness. “No. Maybe. A few things I wrote were published in the local gazette. They seemed rather popular.” She shook her head. “Silly little things.”

“You still could be a writer,” Carmilla said. “Write about all this. How you thought I was a boy at first, how you fit in so well amongst pirates, how beautiful the harbour is.” She paused again. Her hands rested on the rail, eyes gazing into the dark waters below. “Instead of getting out at port here, you could stay on with us. You could write about it all.”

Laura finally looked away from the horizon, looking to her instead. Her eyes swept Carmilla’s face, landing at her eyes and pinning her almost so that she couldn’t move. “I could,” she said, her voice low. Her eyes were sharp, deadly pin-points. She seemed almost welcoming. If Carmilla stared into her eyes long enough it was almost like Laura was willing her to try and kiss her again. Carmilla wanted to kiss her again, so badly.

“You should,” she said instead, and bit her tongue.

The port drew in closer.

Carmilla rested her hand on the rail, eyes fixed on the burning glow of a port-side tavern, and she jumped slightly as she felt Laura’s warm, steady hand slide over to cover hers.

The warmth startled her.

“Stay,” she repeated, and unable to resist, she pressed her lips gently to Laura’s cheek.

Laura breathed in a sharp breath and stiffened, and Carmilla pulled away to gage her reaction. Laura blinked, as if shocked, but she didn’t move away. Instead, her body swayed as if seemingly pulled towards Carmilla like an invisible magnetic force was drawing them together and she was unwilling to resist it.

Carmilla reached a hand up to surround her neck, slowly. Gently. Her thumb grazed Laura’s jawline, the soft skin there, and Laura’s lips parted slightly. Her skin glowed ethereal in the half-light, eyes white markings against shaded skin. Carmilla moved forward, still slowly as if Laura were an easily startled animal. Gently.

The kiss, when it finally happened, was less gentle and more a culmination of days of frustration and longing meeting in a clash of lips and teeth and tongue and fast sharp breath. Carmilla kissed like the devil, like she was trying to suck and bite and devour every inch of her until only her soul was left. She kissed like a vampire draining the last hint of blood from her prey, like a demon, like a succubus. She kissed like someone who had kissed so many times before but she kissed like someone who had never before kissed like this and she kissed like she was learning how to all over again. She kissed like a drowning man clings to the last surviving piece of the shipwreck.

Laura bit at her neck drawing little sighs and moans from her, and sucked at the pressure point at her jaw until a red mark stood out stark against the pale skin. She dragged her lips across her jaw, across her cupids bow and gently bit the swell of her lower lip between her teeth before she let herself become engulfed in kisses once again.

Finally, as the ship began to wake and as the port drew close enough that they could make out individual buildings and shop fronts, Carmilla pulled away. She wiped her lips on the back of her hand and then blinked back up at Laura to make sure she wasn’t offended. “The others will be waking soon.”

Laura nodded. “I’d best get back, before Lafontaine realises where I was.”

Carmilla snorted. “They wouldn’t notice if someone sliced their nose off while they slept. Unless it affects Perry or their precious medical equipment…”

Laura rolled her eyes. “I know, I know. But-”

“- you still need to get back, I know.” Carmilla nodded, pressing a final, closed-mouth kiss to the corner of her mouth. “But you’ll stay on board?”

“Was all that effort just to convince me?”

She shook her head. “No! I mean, partly. I mean… I want you to stay. Because I like you.”

“I like you too,” Laura said, and then laughed a little too loud, tilting her head up towards the stars tangled in the rigging. “I cannot believe I just said that. Little more than a month ago I was darning in drawing rooms. Now I’m confessing my affection towards a pirate.”

Carmilla pressed her lips to her forehead. “You’ll stay, then?”

“Yes.” Laura smiled up at her. “I’ll stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> i am so tired and this is so bad haha it is past midnight forgive me if this is bad  
> if it isnt awful i may write more? like i feel i have enough ideas to write a following chapter but whatevs


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